Swimming finds victory, loss against Puget Sound, PLU

Alex Jensen, Staff Writer

Linfield Wildcats clashed with the Puget Sound Loggers Fridays night in the Aquatic Center.

The Wildcats won a total of 15 of out 22 events. The women won a whopping 122-83. The men on the other hand unfortunately lost 95-110.

‘Cats women won the 400 Medley Relay, the final time was 4:08.98. Molli Hartzell, ’20 led with Butterfly finishing with a time of 1:01.55. Kaedi Fry, ’19 came in with 1:09.55, Alexis Murphy, ’20, with a time of 1:01.06 and finishing off was Grace Lawson coming in with 56.82.

On the relay during the meet, Murphy said, “It felt strong- I don’t know I came into the season not knowing the training techniques here is a lot different compared back home… picked up techniques and helped me tremendously.”

Heading into her next events 200 Breaststroke and 200 Butterfly, she said, “Feeling very confident heading into next couple of events.”

The Wildcats men also won the 400 Medley Relay. The final time was 3:42.28. The team was composed of Joshua Galbraith, ’18, Victor Brasil, ’18, Matthew Hanson, ’18, and Trevor Gourley, ’19.

Evette Dow, ’19, won the 200 Freestyle with a time of 1:58.93 and 500 Freestyle in 5:19.81.  Lawson, won the 50 Freestyle in an impressive 25.13 and 100 Freestyle in 55.46. Murphy, won the 200 Butterfly in 2:14.42 and 200 Breaststroke in 2:35.06.

Fry, won her 200 Individual Medley with a time of 2:15.55. Hartzell took the 200 Backstroke in 2:14.00.

Oliveira Neirton, ’19 grabbed the 50 and 100 freestyle with times of 22.01 and 48.97. Juan Vidal, ’17, won the 200 Individual Relay with a time of 2:03.87. Vidal, also snagged the 200 Butterfly in 2:02.21. Victor Brasil, ’18, took the 200 Breaststroke in 2:13.32.

“It felt pretty good it was a hard meet against UPS but we did our best,” Neirton said.

Neirton said on Individual performance, “I felt pretty good- I won my events- I won the 50 free and 100 freestyle and we just got second on the last relay because we had to split to try to win the whole thing.”

After the meet feelings Murphy said, “Amazing- I am extremely tired and sore but I felt strong and good and ready to race tomorrow.”

“I think our women’s team is pretty strong so I feel pretty good with the team we have and it’s just going to be a tough meet. I know that for sure cause PLU is a returning conference winner so we’ll see how tomorrow goes,” Belle Reyes said.

“I think we just want to put it all out in the pool, just leave what we can work on because we work really hard- so I just want to change and show what we’ve been working on for the past three months going into tomorrow,” Reyes said.

The Wildcats had a long dueling day against Pacific Lutheran University. Saturday afternoon the men won 121-84 and the women lost 80.5-124.5. The ‘Cats won a total of 15 out of 22 events.

The Wildcats came up on top in the men’s 200 Medley Relay out touching the Lutes with a time of 1:37.18. The team was made up of Noah Cutting, ’20, Victor Brasil, ’18, Matthew Hanson, ’18, and Hayden Coosky, ’18.

The ‘Cats triumphed in the 1000 Freestyle on both men and women’s side. Evette Dow, ’19, won come in with 11:08.20 and Joshua Luffred, ’17, came out with an impressive 10:13.07. Luffred out swam his seed time by 4.52 seconds.

The entire swimming arena was up in arms cheering Luffard on. The race was neck and neck, Luffard slipped by PLU swimmer by .20 seconds.

Dow also gained the 100 and 500 Freestyle with a time of 55.17 and 5:20.74.

“It was a rough one it was hard the hundred free to 500 isn’t the

best combination but I think overall we did pretty well. We were a lot closer this year,” Dow said.

Trevor Gourley, ’19, took the 200 Freestyle in 1:49.31. Gourley out touched fellow teammate Coosky by .67 seconds. He also out swam his seed time by 1.13.

Oliveira Neirton, ’19, grabbed the 50 Freestyle edging out PLU with a time of 21.93. Neirton out touched by freaking insane .44 seconds. He also won the 100 Freestlye with a time of 49.57. In another insane edge, out, Neirton squeezed by teammate Gourley by .23 seconds.

Wildcats once again triumph in the same event. Kaedi Fry, ’19, and Juan Vidal both took the 400 Individual Medley. Fry came in with a time of 4:42.81. Vidal came out with 4:25.13.

“I felt great. I felt like I was really helping out my team and wanted to win,” Fry said.

Cutting won the 100 Butterfly with a time of 51.70. And the 100 Backstroke in 52.70. Molli Hartzell, ’17, conquered the 100 Backstroke in 1:01.47.

Brasil grabbed the 100 Breaststroke in a time of 58.50.

The men’s 200 Freestyle Relay was an impressive edge out. They came in with a time of 1:28.94 edging out PLU by .42 seconds. Neirton, Matthew Hanson, ’18, Joshua Galbraith, ’18, and Grouley made up the team.

“I think it went awesome we definitely put up a fight and showed them what we got defiantly performed better than last year and we’re ready for conference,” Fry said.

“Everybody swam really well there has been a lot of good races- we’ve been able to like pull through even though we didn’t win today like the environment was really good and nobody got discouraged so it was a plus it was great,” Anna Korn, ’17, said.

Vidal on the meet, “you know that was pretty uplifting coming out from last night. We got beat kind of on the last relay on the guy’s side and I think we were all a little upset about it but we knew that PLU was going to come in here fresh ready to do some battle and I think our guys did a really nice job coming in with a different game set and- setting up winning some close races and are able to turn the meet into our favor so it was pretty exciting and it is good to see us start off right now after finishing with the Washington schools on a 2 and 2 races oh sorry 2-2 record that we haven’t done in a really long time.”

Next on the Wildcats list is the Logger Open taking place all day, Dec. 2nd, Tacoma, WA.